Welcome to sojournmusic.com’s weekly worship music set list review. You can find links to the set lists of this church and many other churches each week in the Worship Blog Carnival at theworshipcommunity.com. And you can learn about some of the songs we sing at Sojourn Gathered each week in advance of the Sunday service by reading my “Getting Ready For Sunday” post each Thursday at Sojourn’s online journal, TravelBlog. This set list recap begins with the first song following the Call To Worship (our sets often begin with a pre-Call To Worship song that is “band leader’s choice,” and so is different in each campus). Some additional variations in the music sets may have taken place in each service/campus. Photos by Chuck Heeke, from our Midtown Campus.
1. Come And Sing written by Sojourn’s Jeremy Quillo. You can download the chord sheet from our Before The Throne page, and hear the song in its entirety at Facebook.com/sojournmusic. We used this as the “Call To Worship” song on the liturgically-themed Before The Throne album, and that’s how we used it today as well.
Read the “Come And Sing” story behind the song by Jeremy Quillo here at sojournmusic.com.
2. Merciful God written by Keith & Kristyn Getty and Stuart Townend. We used this as a song of confession, singing about our utter dependence on God.
Merciful God, O abounding in love,
Faithful through times we have failed You;
Selfish in thought and uncaring in deed,
Foolish in word and ungrateful.
Spirit of God, conquer our hearts
With love that flows from forgiveness;
Cause us to yield and return to the mercy of God.
3. Cling To The Crucified anonymous text adapted from Bonar’s “Lyra Consolationis.” Music by Kevin Twit, RUF pastor and also the founder of Indelible Grace. You can get this on the Indelible Grace album Wake Thy Slumbering Children.
Following “Cling To The Crucified,” we greeted each other in the Passing Of The Peace. Then Pastor Daniel Montgomery preached the first sermon from our new “What Is The Church?” series, which will sweep through the Pastoral Epistles (1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus). This week’s sermon provided an overview of 1 Timothy.
4. Holy, Holy, Holy by Reginald Heber. We use an arrangement similar to Sufjan Stevens’. Here, we sang it as our Communion hymn for the week, singing as we came forward to receive the bread and cup, and to visit the offering baskets.
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All Thy works shall praise Thy name, in earth, and sky, and sea;
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!
5. Praise To The Lord Almighty text by Joachim Neander. Music by Lobe den Herren, with an additional chorus by Page CXVI.
Praise to the Lord, who hath fearfully, wondrously, made thee;
Health has vouchsafed and, when heedlessly falling, has stayed thee.
What need or grief ever hath failed of relief?
Wings of His mercy did shade thee.
6. Warrior written by Sojourn’s Dave Moisan, Neil Robins and moi – Bobby Gilles. We recorded this on Over The Grave: The Hymns Of Isaac Watts, Volume One. Get the chord sheet from our Over The Grave page, and listen to “Warrior” in its entirety at Facebook.com/sojournrecords.
Read the story behind the song, and watch short videos from the “Warrior” recording session here at sojournmusic.com.
Following “Warrior,” and announcements for our weekend Membership Class and potluck lunch meetings for those who want to join a Community Group, we blessed each other through the Benediction.
Thank you for these weekly posts. As a worship & arts director in upstate NY, I’ve learned long-distance from these posts and have enjoyed so much of your music. I do have a question that I *hope* will not come across as anything but a simple observation: when do you laugh? It may just be the format of this blog, but week after week it seems that you have earnestly celebrated your liturgy with solemn reverence. Which I respect and have been a student. It just seems that — at some point — you’d also break out into some resurrection-infected giddiness. Does my question make sense?
Great question, Tamara. We do consistently strive to be a church that takes people through a full range of emotion. Most of us came from backgrounds where everyone was “plastic happy” all the time. Unlike the depth of emotion found in the psalms, the worship songs we sang were all about how care free we were.
And so we’ve purposefully included lament in our liturgies. We try not to go too much in that direction though, because of course the cross is ultimately our hope and our joy. At one point, our songwriter Jeremy Quillo wrote “Mourning Into Dancing,” (from “These Things I Remember”) specifically because he felt we needed more songs of celebration.
Our worship pastor and those who write the liturgies try to have a “finger on the pulse” of what the congregation feels and needs — and more importantly, where the Holy Spirit is leading — at different seasons in the life of this church. Some times we go through prolonged periods where we celebrate more than usual. At other times, we may have services heavier in lament and confession. Of course, being human, we may sometimes lean to much in one direction or the other.
Thanks again for the question, and we’re glad that you benefit from these posts and the songs.
Hey, this is Mike from Clarksville TN. Although I’ve never physically attended your church, I was introduced to Sojourn by Freddy T. Wyatt, who purchased some of your “Before the Throne” (which I absolutely love!) cd’s to pass on to our praise team here in Clarksville. In looking at your order of worship, I was wondering about the benediction at the end of the service… what exactly do you say, and is it the same every week? Thanks for your ministry…and keep the great music coming!
Hi Mike. Our benedictions are different each week. You can read quite a few of them at theopensourcebook.org, which is a joint venture between Sojourn and the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship to present free liturgical readings on the web, for churches to use.
Read the Benedictions at:
http://theopensourcebook.org/category/benedictions/
Bobby, I just saw your reply to my question. Thank you for taking the time to answer. I was guessing that, perhaps, you were intentionally swinging the other way from “plastic happy”. I come from a similar background and have been working with our congregation/planning teams about the importance of expressing a “full range of emotion” in worship. That this reflects important facets of a biblically-informed theology. I got a little gun-shy when I was accused of being “dirge-like”. : ) I probably was pushing too hard and not trusting the Spirit to move us over time. We are growing. I appreciate you and others like you who serve as long-distance mentors for us.
Grace and peace to you and your community,
Tamara